Review: Kurt Vile & the Violators in a pretty haze

Reporter

Not so hair-raising, but Kurt Vile & the Violators' guitars layer over each other in a gauzy wash of fuzz and reverb.

Reviewer rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Shadow Electric, Tuesday, February 4

Kurt Vile has great hair. Even up close – and despite the sellout crowd at Abbotsford's Shadow Electric on Tuesday night, the first of three sold-out Melbourne shows, it was surprisingly easy to get within a couple of metres of the stage – it's evident that his long, dark, wavy locks are well-maintained. This may not seem relevant to his music, but when Vile performs with his head down for the most part, in an almost romantic embrace with his guitar, it helps that his hair is nice to look at.

An awkward wave here, a feeble attempt at a joke there – Vile's not the best at between-song banter, but that's always been part of his charm. The Philadelphian former member of revered indie-rock band The War on Drugs has long since come out from the shadow of that group to become a solo star of the same genre, aided by his own band, the Violators, currently comprising Jesse Trbovich, Rob Laakso and Kyle Spence.

They're all top-rate musicians but it's hard to take your eyes off Vile, even though he's rarely looking back at you, and for the most part, it's hard to understand what he's saying – Vile has a tendency to mumble, swallowing his words in a slacker, stoned-sounding drawl. It's a shame lyrically, prone as Vile is to astute meditations, but his vocal unintelligibility can't take away from the transportative, ruminative quality of the music – particularly the shimmering, languorous guitars that regularly evoke the title of his most recent album, Wakin' On A Pretty Daze. The crowd, for the most part, stand before Vile in a state of still entrancement, bar one very keen bloke in the front row who headbangs along to every track.

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Some guy who should be credited as the fifth member of the band swaps Vile his acoustic for his electric guitar after almost every song. Towards the end of the set, the Violators clear off and leave Vile alone with the acoustic. Perhaps solitude forces him to mumble less but on Peeping Tom and Feel My Pain he proves himself just as compelling by himself as when the band's guitars are layered over each other in a gauzy wash of fuzz and reverb.

The others come back on for Freak Train, and Trbovich is trying to play sax but he's having problems with the sound. No matter, all eyes are on Kurt and his hair, and if you close those eyes you can imagine yourself on the Freak Train that he sings of, and when it sounds like that it doesn't seem like such a bad place to be.